


linger

by apocalyvse, keep_swinging, rainstorm97



Category: Julie and The Phantoms (TV)
Genre: Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Canon Compliant, F/M, Found Family, Friendship, Ghost Powers, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, a lot of headcanons, ghost wars! maybe, minor OCs - Freeform, no it's not like that the label is false read it please, some ghost ocs
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-26
Updated: 2021-01-28
Packaged: 2021-03-07 17:46:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 14,082
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26661652
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/apocalyvse/pseuds/apocalyvse, https://archiveofourown.org/users/keep_swinging/pseuds/keep_swinging, https://archiveofourown.org/users/rainstorm97/pseuds/rainstorm97
Summary: “You really don’t know?” he says, his voice rolling through the kitchen like a wave of cold air, sending a shiver down her spine. “You stole a soul from me, what...accidentally?”“I didn’t steal anything from you,” she repeats, and tries to shove down the fear that comes creeping back in. She feels the pit forming in the bottom of her stomach. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”“Julie Molina,” he says, spitting her name like it is poison on his tongue. “I think it’s time we played a game.”
Relationships: Alex & Julie Molina & Luke Patterson & Reggie, Alex/Willie (Julie and The Phantoms), Julie Molina/Luke Patterson
Comments: 187
Kudos: 485





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> hello! welcome! take a seat!
> 
> i don't have a lot to say, but i do have A Lot of ideas about ghosts. anyway. please enjoy :)

The first time she sees him, they’re at the movies.

She leaves the theatre for five minutes before the movie starts in search of popcorn (Reggie’s request), and she sees him standing outside, pressed up against the doors. She only sees him because someone walks through him as she glances out the door - _ghost_ , she realises with a jerk, watching his scuffed skateboard ripple and distort and come back together, but the moment she takes a step towards the door, he’s gone, slipping away into the cold afternoon like he was never there at all.

The second time, she’s running an errand for her dad. She’s paying when she sees him at the door, his hair pushed back into a helmet and a skateboard tucked under one arm, his eyes dark and sad and gone before she can wonder if she’s ever seen him before. 

The third, fourth, and fifth times, she’s at school, pushing through the crowded hallways between classes. She keeps thinking she spots him in the crowd, sliding between - no, _through_ \- people with his skateboard clutched to his chest, but he’s always disappearing, always five steps too far ahead and gone before she can even blink.

The final time is after dinner, as she’s piling dirty dishes into the sink for Carlos to wash, and she swears she sees his helmet before anything else out the window. She moves closer to try and get a better look, but the tree branches block her view, and by the time she's able to peer around the corner, she catches sight of his back as he disappears around the corner of the house.

So she’s hallucinating ghosts now. That’s fun.

“What are you doing?” Carlos asks, looking at her strangely as he adds an empty guac bowl to the collection, standing on his tiptoes to follow her eyesight out the window. “Did Ms. Allen lose her dog again?” 

“Maybe. I’ll be right back.” 

She leaves him standing at the sink, and runs out the back door, reaching the same patio that curves around to the kitchen window, and exhales when there’s nothing - and nobody - waiting there for her. She glances towards the garage; nothing, not even the boys because Reggie had wanted to see if it was possible for ghosts to ride waves, whatever that meant, and nothing where the cars are parked out front, nothing but the shine of the rims and the sound of a skateboard on pavement—

_Wait_.

She runs toward the sound, her heart beating fast, and isn’t a second too late this time. 

“Hey!” she calls out, keeping her voice as steady as she can muster, because it’s _a ghost_ , what if he has some crazy powers that the boys haven’t discovered yet. He flickers at the sound of her voice, and then stumbles over his own two feet and barely catches himself before he tumbles into a bush. 

She closes the distance between them. He turns around to meet her in the middle of the driveway, confused about something. 

She’s definitely being stalked by a ghost. 

“Who are you and why have you been following me around for the past week?” she asks, towering over him as well as she can, considering their heights. He looks embarrassed, shifting from one foot to the other, lifting his skateboard off the ground and tucking it securely under his arm again. 

“I’m sorry,” he says, and when his eyes meet hers they look honest, but she still crosses her arms and raises an eyebrow. He sighs, muttering to himself before taking a step toward her. “My name's Willie. I, uh...I didn’t realise you could see me.” 

He chuckles nervously, but Julie doesn’t look impressed. He clears his throat and continues. “Um, I’m sorry, but I just wanted to, uh, see you, because Alex and the guys talked about you so much, and then you...you know, you saved them from flickering out, so I wanted to see if you were the real deal and—“ 

“Wait, wait, wait. You know the guys?”

He relaxes as he smiles, nodding his head eagerly. “Yeah. I ran into Alex on the Boulevard, and then he introduced me to the guys. I uh, I haven’t been able to see him in a while…” He trails off, despondent. Julie feels like she’s still missing most of the story. If the guys had met someone, another ghost at that, why didn’t they tell her? And was he a part of that club they had told her about? 

“How do I know I can trust you?” she asks him. 

“I know the guys aren’t here, so I guess you’ll just have to take my word for it. I’m sorry. For, stalking you, and everything. I just had to know if you were real or not, because…” He pulls up his sleeve and holds his arm out, showing her an intricate purple mark that flashes against his skin before disappearing. 

She never saw the guys’ own stamps, but she knows exactly what it is as soon as she sees it, and her heart drops more than it should. “Caleb,” she whispers, looking up at him as he pulls his sleeve back down. 

“I need your help.” He looks pained about something but doesn’t mention it as he struggles to get the rest of his words out. “After you, um, freed the guys, from Caleb, he’s had all of his ghosts on a...well let’s just say he’s keeping a really close eye on us, so I can’t go near them.” He pauses, chewing nervously on his bottom lip. “What I’m trying to say - ask you - is if you could give the guys a message for me?” 

A soft smile curves her lips. She wishes she could do more. “Yeah, of course, Willie. I’ll help you.” 

He grins. “Can you just tell them I miss them? That it hasn’t been the same without having them to roam around the streets of Hollywood with?” 

Julie laughs, already nodding. “I’m sure they miss you too,” she offers kindly, even though there’s a good chance she’ll be interrogating them later for having met a new ghost friend and not telling her about it. 

Willie laughs, nodding along. Before she can even react he’s hugging her, squeezing her tight and then letting go just as fast. “Thank you,” he whispers, and then shudders as he pulls away, visibly flinching as the mark on his wrist flares and sputters out.

His face drops, his skateboard crashing onto the pavement. He catches it with his foot, and takes off down the street, faster than she can reach out to stop him, or to ask what’s going on. She watches him go, and when he poofs away at the corner of the street sign, she hopes she’ll get to see him again.

X

Willie is full of nerves when he poofs back to the Hollywood Ghost Club. 

He stands outside the doors for longer than usual, his thoughts filled with Julie and Alex and Caleb, and mutters to himself before throwing his thoughts aside and entering. The club is just as rowdy as usual, full of men with stuffed pockets and women with dresses far too short, and he walks clear through the lifers that are paying more attention to the show than what’s going on around them. 

He makes it as far as upstairs before Chester appears in front of him, dressed in his usual too-tight white suit and polished shoes. “Welcome to the—” his voice cuts off as soon as he sees it’s not a newcomer but in fact Willie, and his brows knit in confusion. “Oh,” he says, looking Willie up and down, “it’s you.” 

Willie scoffs, “Well you don’t have to sound so disappointed about it,” he mutters, adjusting his own jacket. 

“Oh, no, no,” Chester responds, placing his hands behind his back. “I just - I was expecting someone new, not...one of Caleb’s.” 

“What?” Willie questions. Chester vanishes before he can say anymore, leaving Willie’s head spinning as he makes his way to the back of the club. 

Chester thought he was someone new? It’s... _odd_ , for Chester to miss his entry, or to mistake him for a ghost they don’t know. Caleb knew all the comings and goings of the ghosts under his spell, a gift he shared with Chester. Willie’s never known the man to miss him coming in, not in all the years he’s been stuck here; for it to happen now, after everything that has transpired in the past few weeks...

The whole thing doesn’t sit right in his stomach, and he’s tossing and turning the thoughts over in his head as he makes his way down the stairs, his hand catching on the wall as he takes them two at a time. He jumps when Caleb appears in front of him, scrambling to stay on his feet as the man taps a finger to his chin and hums thoughtfully. 

“William, William, Willam,” he drawls. “Where have you been?”

Caleb hasn’t been in the best mood since he’d lost his newest band members back to Julie, more snappish and demanding than Willie has ever seen him. It also just made him seem that many times more evil, not that anyone would say that part out loud. 

Willie’s heart is racing but he knows he needs to keep it together. Caleb knew when the ghosts came and went from the club, but he couldn’t track them out on the streets, not unless he had the time to follow them around all day. As long as he played it cool, he would be fine. “I’ve just been um, ripping up the streets, you know. Shredding some rails.”

“Oh, is that all?” Caleb asks carefully, his eyes watching Willie closely. Willie exhales - _keep it together, keep it together_ \- and nods, forcing a smile. Caleb keeps his gaze on him, analyzing him, like he knows without even needing to ask. 

Willie sighs, giving in. “I also stopped to see Julie,” he admits, very quietly. 

Caleb strikes like a tiger to prey. “Really?” Willie nods and glances down at his feet. “Interesting,” he whispers, and then pulls back, looking down at his nails. 

He looks disinterested suddenly, and that’s how Willie knows he’s absolutely interested, and he can’t shake the feeling that he either already knows too much or not enough. Willie never truly knows when it comes to Caleb.

“I didn’t ask you to go and visit Julie,” he says a moment later, his voice even. 

Chills run up Willie’s spine, which shouldn’t even be possible considering he’s a ghost, but they do, and he has trouble finding any words for too long of a second. “Well I just figured that it would be good to check in on her, make sure she hasn’t rallied any other ghosts, or, uh...anything...” 

Caleb laughs and cracks his neck, rolling his head from one side to the other. His eyes are piercing. He takes one step towards him, and then another, and another, backing Willie into a corner, a hole he can’t wriggle his way out of.

“And what did you find there, William?” he asks, dark, compelling.

The walls feel like they’re getting closer. “Nothing. No more ghosts or ghouls or anything more than usual.” His voice comes out surprisingly steady; he almost lets out a breath of relief. 

“Are you absolutely positive?” he asks, slowly, and Willie clears his throat. 

“Yes. There was nothing we haven’t already seen before.” 

Caleb’s eyes darken. “Why does it feel like there’s something you’re not telling me?” he snarls, one hand reaching out and latching onto Willie’s arm. “I told you, William, what would happen if you lied to me one time. Are you really, _really_ , willing to risk it?”

The following few seconds move faster than Willie can remember, when he looks back on it later. But all he knows in that moment is that he has to _leave_ , go, _get out_ , when Caleb’s eyes gleam with evil intent, when his grip on his arm turns tighter, and it’s panic that fuels Willie to disappear. 

He blinks and then he’s gone, and his feet land on a different floor. He doesn’t remember closing his eyes, or squeezing them shut, but he feels someone’s hand on his shoulder, and then he hears their voice, and his heart soars. 

“Willie?” 

He opens his eyes to Alex’s face, standing over him in the middle of a garage he’s never stepped foot in before. He’s shocked, frozen in place for a few seconds that draw out into minutes as he looks around and takes in the new faces around him. 

Julie’s standing from the piano, and Luke is moved in front of her protectively, holding his guitar, which he slings over his shoulder as soon as he sees who it is. Reggie moves next to Alex and pushes him forward when he doesn’t move himself, and the latter shakes himself out of his shock so he can laugh and reach out for Willie. 

“What are you doing here?” he asks him, and Willie just shakes his head and pulls him into a hug, wrapping his arms around him tight. 

He’s scared, and absolutely terrified that Caleb is right around the corner, ready to follow him and take him back. “Caleb knows,” he tells them all from Alex’s shoulder, pulling back a moment later and scrubbing at his nose. Luke doesn’t move from in front of Julie. 

“Caleb knows what?” he questions quietly, Julie’s hand coming to a rest over his shoulder, her nails squeezing the material of his shirt.

“He knows I was watching Julie, and I think he knows something else too. I'm just...not sure what...I got away, somehow, I didn’t even mean to come here - I didn’t think I could get out if he didn’t want—” 

“Hey, slow down,” Alex interrupts, and Willie takes a breath, but his stomach still churns at the memory of Caleb bearing down on him, and Luke still reaches for Julie’s hand, his eyes cautious, untrusting. The air in the room feels heavy all of a sudden, like a dark cloud bearing down on them that they can’t sing their way through, so instead they take their seats around the room to gather the full story. 

If Alex keeps Willie’s hand in his, and if Luke holds Julie close for the rest of the night, nobody says it out loud.

X

Julie’s just drifting off to sleep when she hears the _thump_ downstairs of someone shutting something and the drifting sound of someone humming under their breath.

She’s wide awake again in seconds, sitting up in bed and rubbing at her tired eyes. _The boys_ , she grumbles to herself, a hundred angry words piling up as she sits there and wonders if she can even be bothered going downstairs to find out who is staring at the fridge tonight. Reggie probably; he’d talked about hamburgers for an hour straight earlier, and the only reason she knows it’s not Luke is because he said he wanted to try and finish the chorus for their new song earlier. 

The humming grows louder, an unfamiliar tune and a voice she can’t place between the boys - she really _must_ be tired - and she realises as something hits the kitchen bench loud enough to echo all the way up the stairs, that she’s going to have to get up and shoo them away, or her dad is going to go down there and find things moving around on their own. 

With a groan, and a few choice words, she drags herself out of bed and down the stairs, pulling a coat on to shield her from the cold air that has settled over the house in the night. She is going to _kill_ whoever’s banging around down here, she decides on her way to the kitchen, even if they’re already—

The kitchen is empty.

She stops short in the doorway, the words dying on her lips. The room is still and silent, the fridge door hanging open and the milk sitting out on the bench, the lid halfway unscrewed. She casts her eyes behind her, and into the living room next door, but there’s no sign of the culprit, only the crime scene, and the angry buzz of the fridge as it tries to maintain temperature.

“ _Why_?” she says to the empty room, gesturing at the milk like someone will magically appear and explain to her why a ghost was rummaging around in her fridge in the middle of the night. There’s no reply, of course; she rolls her eyes and crosses the room, replacing the milk in the fridge with plenty of ire. She leans down to check that everything else is still there, all too aware that they like to steal things from the very back of the fridge ( _it’s more impressive if you can get the stuff in the back without dropping it_ , Reggie told her once, when she caught them watching Alex trying to get to the cheese without tipping everything else over).

“Well, if it isn’t Julie Molina,” a voice says behind her, soft and deep and with enough of an edge that it cuts her down to her very core.

She jumps and whips around, slamming the fridge door. The man standing in her kitchen laughs and tips his top hat at her, amusement sparkling in cold eyes under its brim. “Who are you?” she demands, hissing the words rather than shouting them in hopes that she won’t wake up the rest of her family. “What are you doing in my house?”

“Well, I came to see you, of course,” he says pleasantly, as if this was a regular house call and not a strange man standing in her kitchen in the middle of the night. “I’m just such a _big fan_ of your band...what is it? Julie and the _Phantoms_?”

He steps around the bench, and she jumps again, backing away towards the living room. “Who _are_ you?” she asks again.

“Where _are_ the phantoms?” he asks instead, a question for a question, and gives her a smile that says he knows he has her on the back foot. “They’re old friends of mine, you know. I would just _love_ to see them.”

His hand passes through the bench as he talks, and she stops one step from the doorway, realising a lot of things all at once. “You’re the guy from the ghost club,” she says slowly, staring at him with wide eyes. “Caleb.”

“That’s me!” He grins, like a wolf baring its teeth, and twirls on the spot, lifting his hat in a grand gesture. “I have to admit I expected more of a welcome, but it is the middle of the night for you, so I guess you get a pass. This time.”

“What are you doing here?” she asks for the second time, crossing her arms and not liking this situation one bit. 

A part of her wishes Luke or all of the boys were here with her so that it was four against one, but another part of her is thankful they aren’t because she doesn’t want them anywhere near him. She doesn’t know how powerful he is or what exactly he can do, and after all, he did come far too close to having the guys in his clutches for good, so it was probably best not to accidentally give him a chance at round two. 

“Well you see, _Julie_ ,” he spits her name out like it’s something sour in his mouth, “I’m here to tell you to mind your own business.” 

She really can’t help the scoff that escapes her, “Excuse me?”

In a blink of an eye he’s in front of her, the brim of his top hat brushing against the wild curls of her hair. “I want you to mind your own business. Stay out of things you know nothing about. Stop singing with _phantoms._ ” 

Goosebumps appear on her arms. She breathes out through her nose calmly. She won’t let him know she’s afraid. It’s what he’s looking for; fear, anger, a cowering puppet ready to play his games. She won’t give him the satisfaction.

“How about this instead,” she says sweetly, and takes a step forward. He takes a step back as she does so, startled by her boldness. “You stay in your lane, and I’ll stay in mine, and if you _ever_ come near those boys again, I will make you regret it.”

His lips pull into a sneer, angry and wild. “You’ll stay in _your lane_ ?” he repeats mockingly, like she’s said something ludicrous. “You’ll take one of _my_ ghosts, and then we’ll part on even terms? Or _you’ll_ hurt _me_?” He laughs, loud enough that if he could hear it, her dad would be jumping out of bed to see what’s going on.

Julie frowns. “I haven’t taken anything of yours,” she tells him firmly. “The only ghosts I’ve taken are my _band_ , and they were never yours anyway.”

“Oh, Willie’s in your _band_ now then?”

“What?”

She stares at him, uncomprehending, and he stares at her...thinking. Assessing.

“You really don’t know?” he says, his voice rolling through the kitchen like a wave of cold air, sending a shiver down her spine. “You stole a soul from me, what... _accidentally_?”

“I didn’t steal anything from you,” she repeats, and tries to shove down the fear that comes creeping back in. She feels the pit forming in the bottom of her stomach. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

“ _Hm_.”

He regards her with far too intelligent eyes, cold and calculating and all-too-far seeing, like he’s peering right down into her soul. She wonders what he finds there - a frightened, clueless schoolgirl, or the adversary he wants to imagine her to be.

“Julie Molina,” he says, spitting her name like it is poison on his tongue. “I think it’s time we played a game.”

He’s waiting, expectantly, for her to take the bait. “A game?” she asks, even though she knows she shouldn’t, too curious to resist.

“Don’t worry, Julie, it’s not a hard game,” he assures her, adjusting his coat and the hat on his head. “It’s a bit like chess - you take a turn, I take a turn, the pawns fall, the queens advance. First king to topple wins. You see?”

She frowns again, her face twisting in confusion. “No,” she tells him bluntly. “You want to play...chess?”

“No!” He sighs, pressing two fingers to his forehead like he has a headache brewing. “It’s a game of wits. A game of _power_. You’ve already played your first move this morning, don’t you see? It was a good one too - I shouldn’t really count it, but I will, just for you. Willie’s not much of an advantage, really, I doubt it will make much of a difference.”

“You’re crazy,” Julie says, cutting through his words. “I’m not playing any games with you.”

“Aren’t you?” he replies, and then he lunges forward, quicker than any living person could move, and wraps his icy fingers around her wrist. His touch _burns_ , like cold fire, like stinging nettles that reach down into her bones and lodge themselves there, and it feels like an eternity before he lets go - when he does, there’s a mark left on the inside of her wrist; a chess piece, a king, small but distinctive, burnt bright red into her skin.

“Now we match,” Caleb crows, and shows her his own wrist, burnt with the same marking. “Keep your eyes open, Julie. You miss a turn, and you forfeit the match, remember.” He smirks, vicious and victorious, and steps backwards, as if he’s going to turn for the door. “I’ll be seeing you.”

He disappears in a cloud of imagined smoke, leaving her with her wrist burning and no clue what to do next.


	2. Chapter 2

The garage is dark and quiet and empty in the middle of the night.

She goes straight there from the kitchen, too shaken to return to bed and pretend that nothing had happened. It's almost spooky, walking into the dark room; the boys haven't left so much as a lamp on, wary of her warning last week about her dad seeing the lights on out of the window when she's sworn she's turned them all off, and the shadows gather like dust in the corners of the room, moonlight reflecting oddly off the plants gathered in the greenhouse.

The stairs creak, above her and to the left, and she visibly jumps, stepping sideways and drawing in a sharp breath, her hand wrapped around her burnt wrist. "Hey," Luke's voice echoes from the attic, and then he jumps the last few steps, landing softly on the floorboards below. "It's just me. What are you doing out here so late?"

"Uh," Julie pauses, pulling a face. "It's a long story. Where are the guys?"

"Sleeping." He motions up towards the attic as he crosses the room, then shoves his hands in his pockets. "Well, Reggie's sleeping. I don't know where Alex is."

"Ghosts can sleep?" she asks, deciding she would rather not ask after Alex (it's obvious that wherever he is, he'll be with Willie).

Luke shrugs, a grin tugging at the side of his mouth. "Ghosts can do whatever they want," he tells her, and then, as if proving his point, he grabs her hand and tugs her over to the couch, flicking on the lamp that sits to one side.

His hand is still gripping hers as they both take a seat facing one another on separate cushions, and his eyes catch on her wrist faster than she can pull her hand back to cover it up again. "What's—?" He reaches for her wrist and she doesn't fight against him as he gently holds it out between them, his eyebrows raising in shock once he sees exactly what it is. "Caleb?" he whispers, sounding nothing short of horrified, and Julie feels the fight drain out of her.

"I thought it was Reggie," she whispers honestly and winces when he gently brushes a thumb across the still-burning lines, his eyes lifting to hers as an immediate apology spills from him. "It's okay," she tells him, reaching out to grasp his hand in hers, the corner of her lips twitching into the best smile she can muster. "It just...it feels like it's burning."

"What can I do?" he asks her, squeezing her hand.

She takes him in then, his ruffled hair, messy and falling into his eyes, those same kind eyes that she always finds herself looking into filled with so much worry that it's nearly flooding out of him. He's wearing an old Sunset Curve tank-top, black on white, and his shorts match, to her amusement, marked with the same logo in the corner. She didn't even know they had branched their merch out into the pajama category.

"You guys had Sunset Curve pajama sets?"

His brows knit together in confusion and he opens his mouth to say something, but then realizes exactly what she's talking about and looks down at what he's wearing, a chuckle bubbling out of him instead. When his eyes meet hers again they're full of mirth, if only for a fleeting moment.

"We did," he admits, shaking his head. "The collection didn't do as well as the rest."

"I can tell," she answers with a short laugh.

He leans back, feigning hurt, his hand pulling from hers so he can press it against the middle of his chest. " _Ouch._ Right in the nonexistent heart there, Molina."

His playful words snap her back in time to Caleb's, to the twist of his lips and the growl in his words, and she shudders at the memory, tucking her wrist away in her lap.

"Hey," Luke says, drawing her attention back to him. "It's okay. You're here with me now. He won't come anywhere near you when I'm around. I won't let him."

She can't put into words how happy she is that he's here. That he's here with her when she needs him, that he's solid and that she can feel the callouses on his fingers from picking at guitar strings, that she can feel the scratch of his shirt and the warmth of his skin. And even though what Caleb had said less than ten minutes ago had scared her, deep down inside, just being here with Luke, that was enough for her.

"Just you being here is enough," she says, voicing part of her thoughts out loud, her voice still surprisingly steady.

Luke smiles, and she scoots closer to him, their legs brushing together. They sit there in silence for a few moments, the seconds ticking away, and she feels his fingers slide against the side of her hand.

"What happened, Jules?" His voice is careful, tenitivate, and she loops her fingers through his before letting out an exhale that shakes a little more than she would have liked.

"I heard a noise in the kitchen. I thought it was Reggie, but I went down there and..." Her voice catches, her wrist burning at the memory. "Caleb was there. He said something...something about...I don't know."

Luke doesn't push her, letting her take her time forming the words. There's something that stirs uneasily in his gut about this situation, about the fact that Caleb had showed up in Julie's house in the middle of the night.

It angered and terrified him all at once.

"He said I stole a soul from him."

She looks down at her wrist, the skin puckered and fading pink. Luke follows her gaze and wishes he could take the stamp from her skin and put it back on his own, his own fate be damned. If it was ever between him and her, he would take it all. He would keep her safe, no matter what.

"Then he asked if I wanted to play a game." She holds up her wrist, her lips twisting into a wry smile. "He did this to me, and then he left." She slumps to the side, her cheek pressing against the plush of the cushion. "I was too shaken up to go back to bed."

"What soul was he talking about?" Luke wonders.

"Willie, I think," Julie tells him. "He asked if Willie was in the band now, and when he hugged me this afternoon…"

She mulls it over, trying to piece it together, but her brain refuses to work, and a wave of exhaustion slams into her out of nowhere. It was almost two in the morning, and now that being with Luke had settled her a little from Caleb, she felt like she could fall asleep right then and there.

"I don't know. But I get what you meant about Caleb now. He's even worse than you said he was."

That gets a soft laugh out of Luke, the sound rumbling quietly through the garage.

"He's awful," he agrees simply, turning his body and settling back against the cushion. "Do you want to tell the guys about this?" He asks a moment later, looking over at her to try and gage her reaction. Her eyes are shut and she's trying desperately to stay awake for just a little longer, but she's not doing well.

"Yeah, yeah just - in the morning," her voice is drowsy, and he smiles softly before tapping her gently in the arm.

"Are you fallin' asleep on me, Molina?" he whispers, chuckling when she swats his hand away weakly.

"Maybe," she whispers back, attempting to push him away again when he continues poking her. He catches her fingers before she can do anything else, his lips slipping into a smile.

"C'mon," he tells her softly, tugging her up with him. "If you stay awake any longer I don't know how you're gonna get through the school day."

"Hey," she protests, allowing him to pull her up, his hands warm against hers. "I manage just fine with or without a sleeping schedule, thank you."

He slings an arm around her shoulders as they make their way out of the garage, and then up the patio. She leans into him as they make their way into the house, feeling safer passing by the kitchen with his weight against her, but she still shivers when she thinks about what had happened there.

Luke catches her staring as they pass, his fingers squeezing against the cuff of her tee-shirt. "You okay?"

She nods, "Yeah, just tired."

She moves past the kitchen quickly, but he pulls her a tiny bit closer anyway. They're quiet as they make their way up the stairs, tiptoeing past Carlos' and her dad's rooms, reaching her door and pushing it open. Her room is exactly as she had left it.

She sighs and slips out from under Luke's arm to dive for her bed, barely pulling the covers up and over her before laying her head down on her pillow and closing her eyes.

She can feel his eyes on her as he follows her into the room, grabbing the corner of her blanket and pulling it up the rest of the way before taking a step back. Her heart falls at the thought of him leaving, at the thought of her being up here alone if Caleb decided to show up again, his hand reaching out towards her—

"Luke?"

Her voice is small as it echoes through the quiet room, stopping him in his tracks. "Yeah Jules?"

She opens her eyes, catches his across the room, and her heart stops, just for a second.

They were still new to this whole... _thing_ of theirs, if you could even call it that. It had only been a few weeks since she had saved their souls, since she could feel Luke's fingers in hers and hug Alex and sling an arm around Reggie. And her and Luke weren't _a thing_ , but they were close, and she did feel like her world stopped spinning when he would smile at her, or laugh at her softly like he did when they were messing around, or anything, really.

They'd grown closer recently, almost _too_ close - she would find herself alone with him more afternoons than before, the other boys off doing other things, pressed together on the couch or at the piano as they wrote songs, or just...talked. Sometimes, it seems like they're always touching, even if just fleeting, their elbows brushing, or their fingers slipping past each other. She's aware, she should take a step back, that maybe she shouldn't be chasing after a boy that is _dead_ , but...something about it was intoxicating, like she couldn't get enough. Like he couldn't get enough.

There's a small part of her that panics at the thought of asking him to stay, a small part of her that thinks he'll turn her down and not look back, but the longer she looks into his eyes, the further that idea seems from reality.

"Can you stay?"

She holds her breath waiting for him to answer, feeling like it takes an eternity. But then he nods, like it's the easiest decision he's ever had to make.

"Yeah," he whispers. "I can stay."

He sits down at her desk in the corner of the room, the chair squeaking under the pressure. She turns onto her other side so she can face him and he rolls the chair forward a little, before leaning back and crossing his arms over his chest, getting as comfortable as he can.

The chair creaks and groans in protest, and Julie is quick to tell him he doesn't have to because for all the things ghosts couldn't do, she knew he could definitely feel the wear and tear of the chair she's had since middle school. "You don't have to stay if you don't want to," she offers, "I know that chair isn't that comfortable and—"

"Julie," he says, cutting her off, "it's okay. I want to stay."

She keeps her gaze locked on him for a few seconds more before finally giving in and closing her eyes, sleep already attempting to pull her under. "Thank you," she whispers. He shifts, and the chair fights back noisily. It makes her smile.

"Get some sleep. We'll talk about it in the morning."

She's out faster than he can blink, snoring softly, and Luke leans back, exhaling. Caleb wasn't going to lay another hand on her, not if he had anything to say about it. He falls asleep a few moments later, drifting off to thoughts about the ghost club, and the night is silent once again.

X

When she wakes up, it is morning, weak sunlight trying to fight its way through an overcast sky to shine through her window, and Luke is still there, now sitting on the floor by her bookshelf instead of her chair, with his notebook spread across his knees.

She smiles when she sees him there, brow furrowed as he scratches out a lyric, slowly compiling the words to a song she will help him decipher in a few days. Then she yawns and pulls herself upright, rubbing at her still-tired eyes like she can wipe away the memory of Caleb appearing in her kitchen too.

"Long night?" Luke jokes in a low voice, his pen pausing as he looks up to greet her.

"I guess so," Julie agrees. "Thanks for staying, Luke, I…"

"Anytime," he hurries to reply, closing his notebook with a _snap_. "I don't think I could have gone back to the garage after Caleb had been here anyway."

The mention of his name is enough to make her shiver, the room suddenly turning icy cold. Silence stretches between them, strained, until Luke stands and breaks the spell, shaking off the uncertainty that has fallen over them.

"I'll get the others," he offers, his eyes turning towards the window, and the roof of the garage outside. "We should talk before you go to school."

Julie nods in agreement. "I'll be there soon," she promises.

Luke smiles, soft and encouraging, and then disappears in search of the rest of his band.

Julie sighs and drags herself out of bed.

When she makes it to the garage twenty minutes later, toast in hand and Reggie on her tail (she'd found him watching her dad make breakfast downstairs and had saved Luke the trip with some creative notes with the fridge magnets), she finds the rest of her ghosts waiting for her on the couch, Willie included.

"Julie, this had better be worth missing bacon and eggs for," Reggies says as he falls into a seat, and ignores the withering look that Luke shoots at him.

"Dude," Alex says in reply, exasperated. "You can't even eat."

"That doesn't mean I can just walk away from bacon and eggs!" Reggie argues, his voice rising quickly.

"Guys," Luke snaps. "This is important."

"Okay, _okay_ ," Reggie sighs. "No breakfast today, I get it. What's up?"

Luke looks around the room, making sure he has everyone's attention, before he says, "Caleb was here last night. Inside the house."

The garage goes silent. Reggie shoots to his feet, like he can still run to stop Caleb, and Willie turns pale, clutching at Alex's wrist. Julie swallows hard, trying to push down the lingering fear of finding that man in her house.

"It's not _bad_ news," she says, trying to keep her voice light. "He said that I...that I stole Willie's soul from him, so…"

Willie openly gapes, his grip on Alex white-knuckled. "So I'm free?" he asks. "I never have to spy on anyone ever again? Or bring them to that club? Or—" He stops himself short, his wide eyes landing on Julie for the first time. "You don't want me to do any of that stuff, do you?"

"What?" Julie's eyebrows shoot up in surprise. "No! Why would you think I—"

"No, I'm sorry," Willie babbles over the top of her. "I didn't think you would, I just - I mean, that's just what people that look after souls do…"

"You mean like Caleb?" Alex asks, squeezing his hand.

Willie nods. "And the others - Jacob from downtown, and Celia, at the pier, and all the other ones around the world. They steal souls to make themselves more powerful and use the ghosts to do their dirty work, or find more ghosts, or...put a band together and get rich off of lifers." He shrugs, and then sits back into the couch.

"So," Reggie says uneasily. "You're saying if Julie wasn't the one who…who brought us back, then—"

Willie nods shortly, his eyes darting between all of them. "You could have ended up stuck singing for any of the big three in LA for eternity. Right place, right time, I guess, huh?" His voice holds no humor as he says it, and Julie's heart already feels too heavy.

She can feel Luke's eyes on her from where he sits, and doesn't object when he stands up and walks over to her a few seconds later, his arm brushing against hers, a steady weight at her side.

"So there's ghosts...and then there's ghosts that, what? Own the world?" Luke asks.

"Basically," Willie confirms, fidgeting in his seat. "I don't really know how it works, I've never been out of LA, but...Caleb basically owns the city here. He picks the people he wants in the club, and he doesn't care about territory or allies or anything. Jacob and Celia are powerful, but they're nowhere near what Caleb is capable of. Even if they worked together, they'd never go up against him. But…" He pauses, trying to choose his words carefully. His eyes meet hers, "You did."

Julie shakes her head, "I didn't _mean_ to," she says. "I don't even know how I freed you, and I don't...you can have your soul back, I don't want it." She sighs, frustrated, looking from Willie to Alex, from Alex to Reggie, and finally to Luke beside her, whose fingers loop around her own reassuringly. She looks back to Willie. "How do I give your soul back?"

He shakes his head. “I...I don’t know. I don’t even know if it’s possible, once a ghost signs it away.” 

“Oh.” She rocks back on her heels, disappointed, and lifts a hand to shove her hair out of her face. The burn on her wrist passes by her eye as she does, catching her attention, and reminding her—

“Hey, Willie,” she says, turning her wrist so that he can see the mark, red and angry against the soft brown of her skin. “Do you know anything about this?”

“What’s that?” he asks, leaning forwards to peer at the burn, and then furrows his brow in confusion. “No, I’ve never seen that before. Where did you get it?”

“Caleb gave it to me,” she answers. “He said it was part of a game he wants to play, I was hoping you knew what he meant.”

Willie shakes his head. “Sorry, Julie. I just do - _did -_ what I was told and skated around the city, I don’t really know... _that_ kind of ghost stuff.

“Okay,” Julie sighs, and lifts her hand as if to wave him off. Instead, she finds herself still holding the toast she’d forgotten to eat while she was here, now ice cold. She takes a bite anyway, her stomach growling. “Well...I’m going to be late to school, so I better go, but..we’ll figure this out. Soon. Hopefully.”

The crust is bitter and heavy in her mouth, and even though she's hungry, she feels like this whole conversation has done nothing but sour her appetite. She pulls her hand from Luke's, intending to leave, but stops at the garage door, exhaling and closing her eyes before turning back around.

"Willie, I'm so sorry. For doing this and...and for stealing your soul. I didn't mean to, and if I'm stuck owning it I just want you to know you are free to do _whatever_ you want. I'm not going to be like...like Caleb. You should be free."

She's nervous, about what he might think, what he might say (is she breaking some unsaid ghost law? Will she accidentally set him free for real, so that Caleb can pull him back into his clutches again?), but his face lights up as she speaks, a wide grin splitting his face in two. "What are you apologizing for? I'm free. You...you saved me, Julie, and I don't think...just... _thank you_."

Julie's heart lifts at his words, and she catches Reggie wiping a tear out of the corner of his eye, Alex smiling, while Luke watches her like she's something extraordinary.

"I'll see you guys after school," she promises, and then she rips herself away and turns back towards the house, smiling despite the fear that seems to have lodged itself permanently in the bottom of her gut.

She grabs her bag, kisses her dad on the cheek and ruffles Carlos' hair before heading out the front door to wait for her bus, but Luke appears in front of her before she leaves the porch. She rolls her eyes and walks right through him, starting her short trek down the street. He gapes at her previously occupied spot for a moment, shocked, and then runs to catch up with her, walking backwards ahead of her to keep up.

She raises an eyebrow, "Okay I know you want to say something, you have your thinking face on. Just spit it out."

"I just wanted to uh, make sure you'll be okay going to school today," he admits, fidgeting even as he walks. She stops before he trips and falls, readjusting her grip on her bag. "With Caleb appearing and, the whole thing with Willie...I was just going to say that...if you wanted me to be there today, I could be."

It was sweet, him offering to come with her, to spend the day being ignored and unseen and bored at her school just to make her feel safe. Julie's heart swells happily because of it. She starts walking again, and he scrambles to keep pace with her, watching her with worried eyes.

"I think I'll be okay," she tells him, "but thank you." Her bus appears in the distance, rounding the corner slowly, and she reaches out to squeeze his hand in hers before letting go again. "Don't get into too much trouble with Willie."

He smirks, "No promises."

He poofs away before she can say anything else.

X

The final chord of _Bright_ glides through the room, the last _forever_ slipping past her lips, strong but lonely without Luke's harmony behind it, with only the piano to accompany it, and then she opens her eyes and realises she's not as far removed from the ghost world as she'd imagined herself to be.

Her class applauds politely, underwhelmed by a performance devoid of the Phantoms when they've all seen the real thing, but she forgets to notice Carrie's sour face, or Nick's smile that's just a little _too_ enthusiastic. Her eyes are fixed firmly to the chair next to Flynn, previously empty...and now occupied by a ghost.

It's not any ghost she's seen before, not her band, or Willie, or Caleb. This is a girl, dressed like she's come straight from a 90's fashion magazine and hunched in Julie's seat with her legs drawn to her chest, her eyes just visible under a long fringe. They dart around the room, watching Julie's classmates with suspicion and a small measure of fear (what do ghosts have to fear from lifers?).

"Very good, Julie," Mrs. Harrison says above her, drawing Julie back to the present with a pat on her shoulder. The school bell sounds then, shrill enough to make the ghost jump in fright, and the class stands, picking up their things.

Julie follows their lead, one eye fixed on the ghost. Mrs. Harrison is saying something as they file out the door, but she doesn't hear a word, slowly shuffling her sheet music together as she waits for the room to empty.

"Ready to go?" Flynn asks, appearing at her shoulder as Mrs. Harrison steps out of the room to yell at a group of boys passing in the hall. "I have _not_ forgotten your promise to play me the latest and greatest Phantoms hits this afternoon."

Julie glances up at her, and then across to the ghost sitting amidst the class' empty chairs. "I just need a minute," she replies, keeping her voice deliberately low. "Ghost stuff."

Flynn's eyes widen, looking around the room like if she tries hard enough she'll be able to see ghosts too. "The boys are here?" she asks, far too loud, and frowns when Julie shushes her.

"No, a new ghost," Julie explains, even quieter than before. "Just give me a minute."

Leaving her music at the piano, she crosses the room cautiously, sitting down on the edge of the chair in front of the ghost. Flynn sits beside her, still looking at the empty space around them; Julie doesn't have the heart to tell her that her bearings are all off.

"Hi," she says instead, focusing all her attention on the ghost.

The girl freezes, staring at Julie, and then slowly unfurls, leaning forwards. "It's true," she breathes. "You can see ghosts."

"Who are you?" Julie asks, gentler this time than she had been when she'd first managed to pin down Willie. "What are you doing here?"

"I'm Elise," the girl informs her, pushing her bangs out of her eyes. "I-I heard you singing, and...I had nowhere else to go, I'm not strong enough on my own…I followed the music here, and—"

"Wait, wait," Julie says, holding a hand up, and Elise's mouth snaps shut. "You heard me singing?"

Elise nods, eyes bright and face honest. "I was on the other side of the city, and I heard you calling, and I...well, the man at the ghost club said _find the girl who sings,_ said you might take me in, and—"

Julie rears backwards in alarm, her chair scraping across the floor as she stands to put some distance between them. "You're one of Caleb's," she says, fear rippling down her spine at the realisation.

"No!" Elise stands too, a hand outstretched as if to stop Julie in her tracks. "I was in Jacob's clan, I - Jacob flickered out last night, you know, and Caleb only takes the strong ones, and I'm not...he didn't want me. You're my only hope, please—"

"I don't know what you're talking about," Julie tells her, confused, wary of the girl's reaching hands and dark eyes. "I don't think I can help you, I don't really know anything about ghost stuff."

"I'll do anything you want," Elise begs. "You can have my soul, I don't care what I have to do, I just - I'll flicker out if you don't help me."

"Whoa." Julie backs away again, her hands raised. "I don't want your _soul_. I'm not - I don't do that."

"But you're - but you're a shaman," Elise insists. "I heard you calling, that's why I—"

She flickers mid-sentence, rippling in and out of view and then falling back into her chair, breathing hard and clutching at her chest. Flynn jumps when the chair moves on its own, tipping slightly under the ghost's sudden weight and righting itself again. Julie stares at the ghost in alarm.

" _Please_ ," she gasps, over the top of Flynn spitting _ghost stuff is so weird_ to the open air. "I-If you don't understand, I can explain it to you, I can do whatever you want, just don't let me...don't let me die. Not again."

She holds out her hand, fingers outstretched, clammy and cold and flickering in and out of existence.

Julie doesn't know what to do.

She doesn't want to let this girl fade away, doesn't know how she can stand here and refuse to help if there's the slightest chance she can, if this girl is right in thinking that she can do what she did for the boys to _anyone._ She's already been faced with that possibility once before, already found her phantoms waiting for their ends in the garage and felt helpless to stop it. She doesn't want to do that ever again.

But this ghost had mentioned Caleb, and now she worries this is another trick, another part of his _game_. She just can't trust other ghosts; she isn't even sure yet that she trusts Willie, no matter how friendly the boys are with him.

But...she can't let the girl flicker and die. Not even if it's a mistake.

"Okay," she says, drawing a deep breath into her lungs, and takes her hand.

There's a flash of light, like a camera going off right in her face, as their hands touch. Even Flynn sees it, stumbling backwards in alarm and staring between Julie and the—

And the—

" _Julie_ ," Flynn stutters somewhere to her left. "Is that - is that a - I think I can see—"

Alarmed, Elise rips her hand from Julie's grip and disappears, and the room returns to normal.

" _Dude_ ," Flynn says, grabbing Julie by the shoulders before she can even blink the spots from her vision. "Did I just see a _ghost_? Did you just make a ghost _visible_?"

"What?" Julie shakes herself, staring at the spot where Elise had stood. "You scared her," she says, as if dazed.

"Yeah, but I _saw_ her, Julie!" Flynn shakes her again and then releases her, bouncing up and down on her toes. "Like when the band plays, but not - but not them!"

Finally, Julie absorbs what Flynn is trying to tell her, whipping around to stare at her in surprise. "Wait, you could _see_ her?"

Flynn huffs impatiently. " _Yes_ ," she answers. "Just for a minute, while you were holding her hand. How did you _do_ that?"

Julie shakes her head. "I don't know," she admits. "She asked me to help her, and I took her hand, and then—"

"What are you two still doing here?" Mrs. Harrison asks as she steps through the open door of the classroom, cutting Julie off mid-sentence.

The girls share a look, Julie panicked, Flynn irritated. "We were just talking," Flynn lies smoothly, pushing Julie gently towards the things she'd left over by the piano. "We must have just lost track of time."

"Sorry Mrs. Harrison," Julie mumbles, and tries not to move too fast as she crosses the room and collects her things. "We should get going now anyway, we have to go home and...study…"

For a single, heartstopping moment, she thinks Mrs. Harrison might stop them, that she'd heard some of their conversation before she had entered the room - but she only waves them away, too tired to bother with them. "See you tomorrow, girls," she says as they edge towards the door, a clear dismissal.

"Bye, Mrs. Harrison," they say in unison as they slip into the hall, and then they collectively breathe a sigh of relief once they are out of earshot.

"Okay," Flynn says on the way to their lockers, her hand coming to rest on Julie's shoulder. "You have to tell me everything that just happened _right now_."

"Not here," Julie replies, glancing around them at the people still loitering in the school's hallways. "I'll tell you on the way home."

Flynn eyes her skeptically, sizing her up, like Julie would ever withhold information from her. "Fine," she agrees eventually, though she's obviously put out by having to wait that long. "But I want all the details. _And_ I get to choose the first song you play me when we get home."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey guys, keeps here for this chapter, just wanted to take a second and say all the feedback we received last chapter was absolutely amazing and had us working on chapter two that same day. you guys are all so sweet, and we appreciated every single bit of support so thank you so much!! 
> 
> please leave a comment and kudos on your way out if you enjoyed this chapter!
> 
> 30/9: minor edit/addition to second scene


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> comin at you hot off the presses from an australian midnight - it's roo updating things! take a picture because this only happens once every five months apparently lmao
> 
> here's a chapter. enjoy. comment if you love it (or even if you hate it it's fine we can take the heat) 
> 
> :)

Julie spends the bus ride home trying to answer Flynn's ghost questions.

It doesn’t go as well as you’d think.

“Julie,” Flynn huffs as they get off at the end of her street, pulling her backpack up higher onto her shoulders. “You need to figure out your magic powers. I can’t live like this anymore.”

“Live like what?” Julie asks. 

“Not knowing!” Flynn spreads her arms in frustration, staring at Julie. “Never seeing your _super cute ghost band_! You can’t keep me in the dark anymore. I can’t take it.”

“Maybe you just need some magic powers of your own,” Julie replies, bumping Flynn’s shoulder as the other girl pulls a face. “Stop making me do all the work.”

“Life is so _unfair_ ,” Flynn complains, her hands turned dramatically to the sky. 

“You’re going to complain about _life_ to a bunch of ghosts?” Julie asks. Flynn’s hands drop to her sides, her face turning thoughtful.

“That’s probably really inconsiderate, isn’t it?” she says dejectedly. Julie shrugs, giggling at Flynn’s exaggerated pout. “Do you see how I’m living? You’re hanging out with ghosts and doing cool stuff like playing the _Orpheum_ , and I can’t even be tastefully dramatic anymore.”

“You did have that sushi with Brendan Urie though,” Julie reminds her as they turn down the driveway, heading straight for the garage.

Flynn thinks about it, and then smiles, like she’s thinking of some treasured memory from long ago. “Yeah,” she sighs happily, ignoring Julie as she scoffs and rolls her eyes. “Yeah, I did. That was pretty great.”

Julie laughs again and then pulls the garage door open for her, wincing slightly as she walks straight through Reggie on her way in. The ghost is standing right in the doorway, staring at her in surprise, like people walking straight through the door is completely unreasonable.

“What are you doing?” she asks, her eyes straying from Reggie, to Alex and Luke behind him, the former perched in the arm of a nearby chair and the latter standing in the center of the room with a guitar and the look of someone who’s just been caught doing something he’s not supposed to.

“Me?” Reggie asks before either of the more sensible liars can say anything. “Just hangin’ out. Waiting for your dad to finish the pizza he’s making.”

“Okay,” Julie says slowly. “Why are you doing that...right in front of the door?”

“Who’s in front of the door?” Flynn asks, somewhere behind him.

“Reggie,” Julie tells her, her eyes still fixed on the offending ghost.

“I just felt like standing here!” he bursts out defensively, and shifts to the side, well out of her way. “It’s a nice doorway! It’s got lots of...sunlight!”

Julie doesn’t miss the look the other boys throw at him, or the way Luke flips his notebook shut as he crosses the room, ducking around Flynn before she can accidentally walk through him too.

“We were just running through a few songs,” he explains with his most winning (most _distracting_ ) smile. “We just thought we’d get warmed up, start putting together a set list for next week…”

“Uh-huh,” Julie says, crossing her arms like she doesn’t quite believe him.

“Julie,” Flynn huffs, displacing Alex by slumping into the seat that the arm he is occupying belongs to. “Tell these boys to get playin’. I can’t tell them the big news if I can’t see them.”

“They can still hear you,” Julie throws over her shoulder.

“It’s not the same without their faces!” Flynn insists. “It’s about the _reactions_ , Julie!”

“Big news?” Luke asks, eternally, insatiably curious. Julie throws him a look and then crosses to the piano, letting a few soft chords echo as she sits. Luke plays along, picking aimlessly at the strings of his guitar and humming along until Flynn’s eyes fall on him and light up. 

“Luke!” she says brightly, like he’s only just arrived.

“What's the big news?” he asks Flynn with a lazy grin, easing up on the quick melody he’s trained his fingers into playing.

Flynn holds up a finger in reply. “No, I need to say hi to the others first.”

“You don’t have to say hi to Reggie, really, do you?” Luke says. The kickdrum snaps twice in agreement, Alex sitting at the drums with amusement dancing in his eyes. Reggie huffs in annoyance and almost trips through the coffee table as he hurries across the room.

“ _This is so unfair-r-r_ ,” he sings, comically off-pitch, and blinks into view before he even picks up his bass. 

Julie chuckles quietly to herself as Flynn glances between all three boys, looking just about as shocked as she always does when it comes to seeing them in person, and allows her fingers to dance across the keys for a moment, absentmindedly playing a quick snippet of Perfect Harmony. 

She gets lost in the sound of the music for a moment, and doesn’t see Flynn’s raised eyebrows from across the room, or hear Luke as he approaches, still picking slowly at his guitar. 

“New song?” he asks her once he’s close enough to lean over her shoulder, his guitar brushing against her back. She startles at his voice so close to her ear and hits a discordant key as he pulls back, still steady on his own melody. She turns her head to glare at him but it’s useless when her cheeks are dusted pink and when his smile is so playful. 

Flynn interrupts with perfect timing from across the room with a loud groan. 

“If you two could stop flirting so that I can share my amazing news, I would really appreciate it.” 

“Flynn,” Julie hisses, but before she can say more she’s then interrupted by Reggie. 

“What _is_ the news?” he asks, looking between her and Julie. Luke is standing by Alex now, but Julie catches every look he tosses her way. 

“Okay,” Flynn says, standing from the couch and walking to the middle of the room, “okay, okay, okay.” She looks like she might explode if she has to hold the news in any longer. “Our girl has ghost powers!” 

Luke’s fingers abruptly come to a stop on his chords, his eyes locking on Julie before he disappears from Flynn’s view. Alex keeps his drumbeat going, but his eyebrows are knit in confusion and his eyes are full of surprise when Julie looks over at him. 

Reggie blinks twice. “What?” 

Flynn throws her arms up, “Julie has ghost powers!” She walks over to her and takes a seat beside her on the piano bench, her fingers sliding across the keys in crescendo. “Awesome news, am I right guys?” 

“No,” Luke says from Alex’s left, his eyes still on Julie. He hasn’t started playing again so that Flynn can see him once more, and she knows he’s doing that on purpose. He has something to say that he doesn’t want the other girl to hear. 

Reggie and Alex don’t say anything at first, and Flynn sighs, looking pointely at Julie. “I know I said I wanted a reaction but this is far from the reaction I’d thought we’d get.” 

“We’re just shocked is all,” Alex offers, picking up on Luke’s uneasiness faster than Reggie. “We didn’t even know humans _could_ have ghost powers.”

“Well apparently you aren’t the only ghosts Jules can make visible.”

“A ghost found you?” Luke interjects, unknown to Flynn. Julie meets his eyes and Flynn follows her line of sight to a spot empty of a third ghost. 

“Hey, hey, hey, no secret meetings while I’m here!” 

“Flynn,” Julie whispers, reaching over and grabbing her hand so that she can squeeze it, and her best friend gets the message, turning her attention back to Alex and Reggie. She fills them in on what had happened while Julie stands from the piano and makes her way over to Luke, reaching out and slipping her fingers around his bicep. “I saw a ghost sitting in an empty chair in class, after I sang.” 

“Caleb just visited you last night, here, in your house, and now random ghosts are finding you?” And there it is, the thing that’s scaring him the most about all of this, out in the open. Her heart pulls. 

“Luke,” she whispers gently, squeezing at his skin, “she said she needed my help.” 

“It could all be one big trick,” he continues, unwavering, “she could be working for Caleb, stringing you along—” 

“That’s what I thought at first too,” she says, cutting his worried ramble off midway. His eyes meet hers, anxious, full of more emotions than she can count, and it stops her for a moment, Flynn and the boys’ voices fading into muffled background sound. 

Sometimes it stops her, how much he really cares for her. Because it’s hard to believe that her soulmate might just be a ghost from the nineties, might just be a boy with messy hair kept under a beanie half the time, the brightest of smiles stretched across his face when she enters a room, his heart bigger than everyone else’s combined. 

Sometimes it stops her to think that this ghostly guitarist might be her destiny. 

“I thought that too,” she repeats, squeezing his arm, “but she was _terrified_ , Luke. She said she would do anything not to flicker out, to not ‘go through that again’, and she sounded so scared that I just…” She trails off, her eyes falling to the guitar he still holds in his arms, his fingers lightly resting on the strings. 

She can’t forget the way the boys had looked when they thought they were going to flicker out, tears in their eyes, unable to barely move, let alone sing or dance or smile or laugh. She thinks of Elise, of how panicked she was, desperate not to die all over again. There’s still a part of her that doesn’t trust her, not with Caleb still lingering in the back of her mind, not with his threat still so clear, _let’s play a game_ —

“Listen,” she says to him, gathering her thoughts once again. “I have to try to help her. And if it doesn’t work, or if it turns out that she’s part of Caleb’s next move, or whatever, at least I’ll feel better knowing I tried to save her instead of just...leaving her to suffer and...and _die_.”

“It’s not suffering,” Luke defends, albeit weakly, because he knows more than anyone else just how much suffering flickering truly is, but he’d rather some random ghost suffer than Caleb get one step closer to winning his so-called game. 

“Stop that,” she tells him, her voice sharper than it was a second before. Her eyes meet his, and he’s rendered silent. Her fingers slide from his bicep down to where his hand curls around the curve of his guitar. When she goes to pull his hand away, he shifts his grip and allows her to, her hand warm against his own. She lights every part of him on fire, he thinks, feeling alive in a multitude of ways whenever she touches him, and he swears it’ll never get old, swears that she’s the best part of him, even if they’re both dancing around what it all means. 

It’s a dance he’s willing to take part in, as long as she’s the one he’s holding close. 

“Don’t say things like that,” she whispers, squeezing his hand, “that’s not you.” 

_It could be_ , he thinks, _I could be that heartless, that cold, that vain,_ but instead he swallows the words, and they’re lost among everything else he doesn’t have the guts to say out loud. (He wonders if she knows just how far he would go to keep Caleb away from her.)

“I’m sorry,” he says quietly, and she smiles at him; soft, caring, so genuine that it makes his heart jump. His fingers feel as though they’re on fire in her grip. 

“I don’t want to lose you to the dark side just yet, Patterson.” 

Luke laughs, his lips forming a grin, “Did you - was that a Star Wars reference I just heard?” Julie’s eyes shine, and her smile is bright. She looks like a star, and he can’t bring himself to look away. 

“Maybe. Don’t tell Reggie.” 

“Oh I’m so telling—”

“Luke!” Julie hisses, letting go of his hand so she can playfully shove him, but before much else can happen, Flynn clears her throat - loudly - from across the room. Julie turns to meet her knowing stare with rapidly reddening cheeks. 

“Is there something in the air, Jules? Because you have been awfully—”

“No, nope, everything’s fine, let’s just,” she interrupts her best friend with a jumble of stumbling words, quickly moving away from Luke, as if that’ll stop Flynn from messing with her anymore. But, knowing Flynn, all it does is add fuel to the fire. 

“So, did you and Luke talk things out?” Flynn continues, making her way over to where Luke stands, smiling with his fingers still stalled on the chords. Julie busies herself with cleaning up some of the trash left behind from earlier in the day, hiding her face from view. Reggie and Alex watch the exchange with varying looks from their spots, soft music still thrumming through the garage. 

“We talked plenty,” Luke says with a startling strum from Flynn’s right, making her jump. Alex rolls his eyes as Reggie and Luke laugh and high five each other, the former hurrying over to the tally chart they have set up next to the dart board. 

“Oh guys come on, that doesn’t count!” Alex calls from the drums, to which Julie and Flynn both groan at. 

“It totally does!” Reggie says over his shoulder as he reaches up and adds another line, bringing their grand total of scares to ten. 

“You guys are ridiculous,” Julie voices from where she and Flynn have taken a seat on the couch, their shoulders bumping together. 

“Don’t lump me in with them,” Alex interjects, causing Luke to snicker. 

Fondly nicknamed ‘The Poof Effect’, the board was a little thing Reggie had nabbed from a dollar store, tallies marked down in chalk. The tallies themselves stood for how many times the boys had scared someone with a poof, and the results were gaining more and more traction. 

Julie sighs, resting her head on Flynn’s shoulder. She was glad to be done with school and here with the boys, but all of the constant worrying she’s been doing is draining, and she wouldn’t mind closing her eyes just for a quick minute…

“You okay?” Flynn asks her as the boys start to argue with each about what counted for the scare board in the background, their voices a low rumble against the constant stream of music.

“Yeah. Just trying to figure out our next step.” 

Flynn nods, her head falling on top of Julie’s. “I’m sorry I didn’t take your ghost powers as seriously as I should’ve,” she whispers.

Julie cracks a smile, “It _is_ kinda cool, isn’t it? Having ghost powers?” 

Flynn laughs, pulling Julie into a hug. 

“It’s the coolest.”

X

The rest of the day is uneventful, save for Reggie adding two more tallies to the scare board when he shows up for pizza with Ray and Carlos in the kitchen. Julie scolds and swats at him as she takes a piece from his place before heading up to her room, promising her dad that _yes, she’s just tired_ and _no there’s nothing wrong_ , munching thoughtfully on the way. 

The crust is a bit more burnt than she likes it, which means her dad let Carlos cook it, but she finishes it off anyway, knowing she’ll need all the energy she can get to get through the dreadful math homework she was stuck with. 

She sighs and grabs her books from her backpack, slinging them on the bed as she searches her room for a pen, or a pencil, anything that’ll write really, ducking under her desk when she sees that her pen cup has been flung under. 

“Weird,” she mutters as she cleans up, placing the cup back on her desk before turning around, pencil in hand - only to find that Elise is sitting on her bed, gently flipping through the weathered pages of her notebook. It shocks Julie enough to gasp, but with all the poofing the boys have been doing, she recovers quick, exhaling softly and trying her best to send a smile the ghost girl’s way. Elise, however, jumps at the sound, scooting back on the bed and dropping the pages as if they’re fire. 

“I’m so sorry,” she rushes out immediately. “I-I just saw the book when I came in and I wanted to see the rest of the drawings and—“

“No, no it’s okay, it’s okay!” Julie says in her most calming voice, and she sees the very doodles Elise is talking about from the corner of her eye - English was so boring she thought she’d lose her mind, and drawing was the only answer she had at the time. “It’s okay. Just, the boys and I, have a boundaries rule, so I was just a little startled to turn around and see you here.” 

“A...a boundaries rule?” she asks, sounding curious, some of the previous fear slowly beginning to drain from her features. Julie smiles.

“Yeah, just you know. Knock before coming in. Pretend you’re human for a second.” 

Elise looks thoughtful for a long moment, and then her eyes flicker to the blue and black pencil clutched tightly in Julie’s hand. 

“Pretend to be human,” she whispers, more to herself than to Julie, before she slowly stands from the bed and makes her way over. She’s taller than Julie, but just barely, her lips chapped and her eyes guarded. She looks nervous, afraid of something no one else can see, and Julie wonders if she worries that Caleb will swoop in any second to leave her for dead for good this time around. “May I?” she wonders aloud as she goes to reach for the pencil in Julie’s hand.

Julie nods and, very carefully, Elise takes the pencil from her, looking at it like it’s something far more valuable than it is before turning back to the bed. She walks over to where Julie’s notebooks sit, open and waiting, and grabs at the one she was looking at earlier, folding over the page so that she can use the back of it.

“I used to be human,” she says, so quiet that Julie nearly doesn’t hear her. Elise puts the pencil to the paper and begins to draw, her movements super slow and extremely careful. Julie takes a step forward so that she can see what exactly the other girl is drawing, watching the way her lines fold and cross over one another. 

“I know,” Julie replies carefully, unsure what she means, or what she’s scribbling so hastily into the page.

The drawing is very shakily done when she finishes a few moments later, a poorly squared house sitting at the top of a hill with two flowers on either side. Four stick figures stand off to the side, their mouths twisted into wavy frowns. 

She’s pressed the pencil so hard into the paper for the eyes that the lead leaves dents, and Julie looks up at Elise in question. 

“I had a family,” Elise whispers, like she’s just now remembering them. “I lived on the hill above the city.”

Her fingers fall to the notebook page again, where she begins to flick through, one page after another. She stops on the page where Julie had drawn a picture of the boys, all wide smiles and cartoonish eyes. Luke’s in the middle, bigger than Alex and Reggie beside him. 

Elise’s eyes are drawn right to him. 

“Who are they?” she asks.

“They’re...my other ghost friends,” Julie explains, taking a seat on the edge of the bed and glancing down at the doodle. “We’re in a band together.” Elise’s finger moves to trace the lines of the pen, of the blues and blacks and reds, the scar the shading had left on the page.

“I—” 

A knock sounds from the door, interrupting Elise before she can finish. Fearfully, she looks over to Julie, and thinking that she’s going to disappear again, the other girl reaches out and grabs her wrist. Luke’s voice echoes through the door as Elise lights up, shining brightly from where she sits, brought to life once more. She gasps in shock, her lips forming a small ‘o’ as she looks down at herself and the golden glow of her skin, so real and alive and _human_ that it takes all her breath away. 

Luke phases through the door, worried about Julie’s lack of answer, and freezes at the sight of Elise, glowing before him. Both of their eyes meet his and he’s at a lost for words, 

Elise looks back to Julie, her eyes just as dark as they were in the classroom. “I-I’m—” she stammers, breathless. “I’m... _real_? You made me... _real_?”

Julie opens her mouth to answer, to try and offer some kind of explanation, but nothing comes out. Her eyes widen in confusion, fear squeezing at her chest. “Julie?” Luke asks, taking a step forward. 

Elise, skittish as she is, doesn’t move, locked in place by whatever otherworldly power is keeping them together. Her excitement fades for a moment as all of a sudden she flickers in Julie’s grip a moment later, sending a shockwave of pain through Julie, enough that it makes her cry out. She finds she can’t let go of Elise when she tries, almost like they’re stuck together, even as Luke poofs to her side and attempts to grab her other arm. His hand phases right through her skin. 

“Julie you have to let her go,” he tells her, his voice pitched in fear. 

“I-I can’t,” Julie says back, sounding more fearful than she should, but her eyes never leave Elise. She can see her dreams, feel her excitement, her surprise. It’s too many emotions overlapping one another. “Elise—”

The ghost girl looks up at her, and tries once more to tug her hand from her grip, her face twisting in worry. “I’m sorry,” Elise says, and slowly, her excitement fades, replaced by cold, dark fear that is deep enough to drown in. “I’m sorry, I don’t know how to—”

“Poof out!” Luke snaps, panic in his voice. “Let go! Just do _something_!”

Elise’s face twists, cringing in fear; and then she shudders and disappears into thin air, taking all the light and warmth in the room with her. Julie feels a wave of exhaustion slam into her as Luke grapples for her arms, and even though he calls her name over and over, she hears nothing at all as her knees give out underneath her, and she falls unconscious.

The last thing she feels is Luke catching her, his sturdy arms wrapping around her, and then she’s gone.

X

She wakes up when it’s well past midnight, judging by the stars shining in through her window. They illuminate the shadows of Luke’s cheeks from where he’s sitting pressed up against the side of her bed when she looks over, his fingers inches from holding her hand. She smiles softly and reaches out, her head still feeling heavier than it should, but better now. She remembers what had happened clearly enough, but she doesn’t know why she had fainted in the first place. When she and Elise had touched in the classroom, she felt fine afterwards, great, even. Maybe because she held onto her longer this time?

Whatever the reason, she was happy Luke had decided to stay with her. It didn’t look comfortable, him sitting in her desk chair, pulled up to the side of her bed where he had obviously slumped over on the mattress and fell asleep, but she appreciated the gesture nonetheless. 

Before she can wake him, however, her eyes are drawn to something moving on the curve of his arm. She leans in closer, her stomach tying into knots, and isn’t prepared to see _words_ of all things appearing there, letter by letter. Luke barely flinches, stirring painfully but not waking, and the horror that mounts inside of Julie as she watches the letters turn into words is unlike anything else. 

_I wouldn’t, if I were you._

_Come and meet me downstairs, Miss Molina._

Her wrist burns, and she looks down to see the stamp Caleb had given her glowing a deep purple, malevolent in all it’s intent. Her heart pounds as she carefully climbs off the bed, avoiding waking Luke out of the fear that squeezes at her heart, and takes the steps downstairs one at a time. 

When she gets down there, she sees the fridge open, and hears Reggie humming a tune to himself, his back turned to the rest of the room. But from Julie’s angle at the corner of the stairs, she can see Caleb sitting at the kitchen table, top hat sitting in front of him. 

He sees her out of the corner of his eye, grinning wide, almost as if he was welcoming an old friend to dinner. “Ah, Julie,” he calls, and chills run down her spine at his voice, but Reggie doesn’t seem to hear him. Caleb must sense her confusion because the next thing he does is click his tongue and gesture to the other ghost in the room. “No need to worry about him. This is a private conversation, is it not?” 

Julie’s frozen where she stands, torn between calling for Reggie and not saying one word. The decision gets caught in her throat and Caleb laughs at her, baring his teeth like the monster he is. 

“I know, Julie, that you’re new to the afterlife and the... _finer_ points of our society.” He runs a finger along the spine of his hat, smiling to himself like this is all some big joke to him. Julie can’t find anything to laugh at. “But it is bad form to openly flaunt your power unless you are trying to give the impression that you are the most powerful in the area.”

_Elise_. The golden light, the way their hands had stuck together, thoughts and feelings and fears running both ways. Is that what he’s talking about? Were other ghosts able to feel that, to see it, not just her?

Caleb smiles, like he can read her mind. “Unless, of course, that was your turn in our little game?” His head tilts to the side, questioning, but he doesn’t give her a chance to reply. “I’ll assume that that’s why you did it. You wouldn’t challenge me like that again, would you Julie? Because, of course, you know; whatever _you_ can do…”

He trails off, and nothing could prepare her for the way Reggie folds over in pain at the fridge, crying out so loud that she flinches. Julie goes to run to him, only to find herself stuck where she stands, a faint purple circle outlined around her, trapping her. 

Caleb smiles and snaps his fingers. 

Reggie doesn’t even sound like Reggie anymore. 

“I can do _so_ much worse.”

He disappears in a cloud of purple smoke a second later, but the screams don’t stop, in fact they get worse and worse and just when Julie almost screams herself, everything goes quiet, and Reggie is in front of her, holding her by the shoulders. 

“Julie, what’s wrong?” His fingers squeeze at her shoulders, tight enough to ground her. “Did something happen? Where’s Luke?” Tears are running down her cheeks because it had seemed so real, and yet Reggie was...Reggie was…

“You’re not hurt?” she asks him, sounding terrified. 

Reggie slowly shakes his head. “No, Jules of course not. I had just come in to switch spots watching over you with Luke so he could get some sleep, and you were just frozen here.” He pauses, his eyes checking over her for injuries, “It was really scary, Julie. I thought you were hurt.”

She shakes her head, “I’m fine. I’m-I’m okay.”

“Are you sure?” 

She nods, but her heart is pounding a mile a minute, and all she can think about is Elise and Caleb and all she wants is Luke and—

“Can you - _Luke_?” She gets his name out in one strangled breath, and that’s all Reggie needs as he wraps and arm around her and up the stairs they go.

**Author's Note:**

> thankyou for reading! for more of our content, to ask questions, or just to chat, find us on our tumblrs, @zombiedadjokes and @keepswingin
> 
> please remember to leave a comment if you enjoyed this fic!


End file.
